Saturday, July 18, 2015

Saturday Spotlight: Adolescent Visitors

Today I am “shining my Saturday spotlight” on a particular type of guest: the adolescent visitor.While driving up to our house yesterday, I noticed that we had a visitor. It appeared to be an adolescent male. He was lying in the shade of our home, and he seemed to have made himself very comfortable on our lawn.

Visitors like this one come by quite frequently - alone, in pairs, or sometimes as a whole family unit. They sometimes eat things they shouldn't, but I rarely ask them to leave. I chatted from the car with this one for a while, and he seemed to be listening. Unfortunately, I doubt he understood the part about leaving the bushes and flowers alone.
Deer visitors can sometimes be a little pesky. The human teenagers who visit us, however, have always been good guests.
My husband and I have always wanted our kid's friends to feel welcome in our home. We enjoy their visits, as they usually chat with us a while. It is a nice way to get to know them all a little better.

Saturday Spotlight #28

If you want your teenager (or young adult) and his/her friends to spend their time together at your house, it needs to be a fun place for them to be. An area where they can watch movies, a ping pong table, and a basketball hoop are a few good perks. If kids are musical (like my son and many of his friends), having a piano and a place where they can play music together can been a good thing as well.
Teenagers can empty a fridge and pantry just as quickly as a deer can strip the leaves off all the bushes around my house. While I do begrudge the deer my garden produce, my kids and their friends are welcome to “graze” as much as they want.
If teenagers will be dropping in, be sure you have plenty of food on hand. Otherwise, they may not stay very long!What are your ideas of how to make a home a fun (safe) place for teenagers?

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I am sorry EC - your parents really missed out. I love having my house filled with the laughter and music of my kids and their friends. I am hanging on tight to every minute of it - with one child already away at college most of the year, and the other soon to be.

Oh I'm so glad I don't have those grocery bills anymore although when the twins grow up I can't imagine how much they will cost. That's one of the main things I miss about KY, the wildlife and the GREEN, beautiful grass. We have seen a few deer here, but they look like German Sheppard's. We did have a whole family of turkeys in the front yard. A mother, father and about 5 of their offspring.

We've always been the hang-out house. When kids are visiting they take over the basement. There's a fireplace for the winter months, a 57 inch tv with surround sound and an Xbox. There's a pool table, a pinball machine, a nook with a table and chairs and a microwave and popcorn. There's a room with a full sized fridge down there that I keep stocked with drinks and the kids both stop in the kitchen on the way down to grab whatever is fresh baked and also help themselves to the kitchen pantry. The basement has a bathroom too. They're pretty well taken care of down there.